In Colorado, we are contending with longer and more destructive wildfire seasons, reduced snowpack and increased incidence of respiratory disease. Research from the Union of Concerned Scientists and a climate change vulnerability study from CSU shows a doubling in the frequency of fires since 1970 and an expected increase of 400 percent to 650 percent in burned area by mid-century if the trend continues. With Colorado’s average temperature projected to increase by 4 degrees Farenheit in the same time, drought conditions will lower stream-flows, create severe reductions in snowpack at low-elevation, and move spring runoffs earlier by as much as month.

These impacts are beginning to affect the things that I love most about Colorado. I won’t be able to take my lunch break fishing in the Animas if flows won’t support a healthy trout population (or if the water is orange, but that is another can of worms), and I would hate to see my ski season end a month earlier (especially after paying through the nose for a season pass). Climate change is happening now and it is high time we start doing something about it before it’s too late.

PJ Higgins

Durango